


Injustice

by Huntz711



Category: One Piece
Genre: Gen, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, Smoker is an alright guy, Usopp needs a hug probably, just obvious results of it, there isn't any actual rape in it
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-02
Updated: 2021-02-02
Packaged: 2021-03-14 05:08:21
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,828
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29165475
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Huntz711/pseuds/Huntz711
Summary: Smoker knows the system he works for is corrupt. Now, however, this injustice is being shoved in his face, and he has a decision to make.
Relationships: Mugiwara Kaizoku ︳Strawhat Pirates & Usopp
Comments: 6
Kudos: 28





	Injustice

**Author's Note:**

> Hi! This has been in my drafts a while. I'm kind of proud of it. Smoker came out of nowhere?

_ It's cold in the prison _ , Smoker thought as he descended the steps. 

The Straw Hat Sniper had been captured a week or so ago. Of course, ever since then they'd tried to get answers from him as to what the other Straw Hats were planning, or where they were headed. The interrogations had been to no avail. Being a Vice-Admiral stationed closer than anyone else, they'd ordered Smoker to ship the guy to Impel Down. He thought that was ridiculous. He hadn't even seen the Straw Hat's crew in months, not since Punk Hazard. Not when they'd been picking fights with Yonko left and right. The marines did not need to involve themselves in such things. And last time he'd been near that crew, he'd lost terribly (he considered allowing his men to have a banquet with a pirate crew to be a loss.)

Still, he descended the steps down to the cells and came to a long hall. It was a completely average, shitty prison block. A long stone hallway lit by a few lanterns, barred off cells on either side with doors of iron bars. Something about it, though, put him on edge. The shitty lighting was average. The wet patches on the floor and uneven stone walls were average. Rusting metal bars? Average. Honestly this place shouldn't be able to hold such a big shot pirate as a yonko (was he a yonko? Everything was up in the air) crew member.

It wasn't something he could see or hear. The cold, dank underground air was normal. It wasn't a feeling. 

Then he caught it. It was the smell. Granted, rot was to be expected in such a shitty facility, but this wasn't just rot. It took him a moment to recognize it, recognize why the smell sent shivers down his spine. He'd encountered the smell before, but it had always been on pirate ships or in the secret bases of bandits and criminals. Specifically mixed with the smell of dampness and dirtiness, it sent discomfort lancing through him and his stomach did a flip. 

Sex. It smelled like sex down here, reeked of it even. If it was in the men's quarters, that was to be expected in some cases. There weren't many women in the marines and Smoker knew that many of his own men even engaged in those sorts of activities together both to relax and because their biology required it sometimes. But that wasn't in a prison cell. That wasn't with a potentially restrained, helpless individual, criminal or not.

He sped up his pace and the smell only got stronger. Cell 7a, they'd told him. He reached it, set his jaw, and turned to look inside. 

At first glance the cell seemed to be empty. However, there was a bed in the corner, more of a low shelf. It had no mattress, just a wood plank suspended from the wall with two rusted chains.

Underneath it a body was curled up. No sound came from the body, but Smoker saw a tired eye open and stare at him, then widen. The curled up figure began to tremble and shifted silently. It was dark, but Smoker could see the light from the hall reflecting on that eye and he caught sight of the suggestion of a long nose.

He'd seen this man before in his run-ins with the crew and it was, without a doubt, "God" Usopp. 

Smoker felt like he'd throw up. The curled up figure was definitely naked and the stench of sex, of  _ rape _ , he told himself, was coming right from him, from this cell.

They stared at each other. Usopp's eye was wide, but it was steady as it stared at him. It was fearful but still the calculating gaze of a sniper. It bored into him like the eye of a hawk. 

Smoker knew he had to enter. He was supposed to escort him out. He stepped inside. 

Usopp gave a full-body flinch at this and shrank away but Smoker simply entered, set the lantern down, and sat. "Usopp."

The name felt wrong on his tongue. But the man didn't have an epithet other than God and no known family name either. 

The eye looked surprised at that. 

"Smoker." The voice was shaky and raspy and yet somehow dignified. Almost mocking him? Why?

The sniper crawled out from under the shelf and stood. His ankles were chained together but the chain was long enough to walk with. The cuffs were heavy iron ones. He had a set on his wrists that forced them together. He limped into the light, heavily favoring his right leg and Smoker saw the bruising on his left one, the way his foot trembled and almost buckled with every step. Had they broken his leg? Why was he walking?

The steady eyes were fixed on him. In the light of the lantern Smoker could see the bags under them and see a bruise on one and scratches all over him, likely from being shoved on the floor. Bruises wrapped around his neck and hips and wrists and thighs. 

He was completely naked, but he kept his head up, walked with a sense of pride despite his limp. 

Oh. That was why. He hadn't thought of the sniper as particularly strong willed, but with that show of conviction… he obviously was. He slowly sat down in front of Smoker, cross-legged, not trying to hide a thing.  _ This is what your righteous organization did to me _ . 

The steady eyes on him were heavier than any accusation.

Usopp didn't mention his situation. "You're here to take me to Impel Down."

His voice was hoarse. The kind of hoarse that came from screaming. His hands trembled where he'd set them on his legs, but his voice held a forced calm. Dignity. It wasn't as if he was just grasping at it, either. He was focused. It wasn't a bluff and this was a show of strength, but the sniper's fists clenched to stop the shaking and Smoker knew this was hard for him.

Usopp was stronger than Smoker had thought. Just in these few minutes he'd proven that. No one deserved that test of strength, though. Not even the worst of criminals, as much as Smoker detested them, deserved what this man had gone through. 

Gone through at the hands of the  _ marines. _ He'd  _ known _ they were corrupt.  _ Known _ that this happened. But seeing it made him sick. Pirates deserved to be imprisoned, maybe deserved death. But not this. Never this. 

He'd never hated the Straw Hats. How could he when, even as pirates, they were kinder and more noble than the marines? Alabasta had been liberated because of them despite what the navy said. Dressrosa had been liberated, too. As had fishman island. Don Krieg and Arlong had been taken down in East Blue, and corrupt marine officers in many places had been exposed. The Straw Hats did the world more good than they had ever done wrong, but they were still pirates and that was why Smoker chased them. People couldn't just do as they pleased. (The respect was also a factor. Monkey D. Luffy, for all his childishness, was an enemy that Smoker felt deserved his opposition. He was pretty sure that the whole Straw Hat crew understood that on some level. There had never been hatred when they went toe to toe.) 

The way Usopp was looking at him was an accusation. An accusation that Smoker knew he wouldn't waste on someone else. 

_ You see this injustice,  _ it said,  _ and I know you're a man of honor. Will you stand by this? I trust you not to.  _

Smoker knew that if he did what his orders told him, if he brought this man to Impel Down, he'd never be able to look Monkey D. Luffy in the eye again, not on a side of true justice. 

Greater good had always been bullshit, he knew. This was the last straw. 

Usopp was awaiting an answer, he realized. 

"I am." He said. 

Something in the sniper's eyes screamed  _ thank God, _ and Smoker's stomach did another flip. The marines had made someone prefer Impel Down, prefer a practical death sentence, or at least a lifetime of torture and pain, over them. And this likely wasn't the first time. 

Footsteps pattered down the hallway outside and Smoker turned his head. A marine saluted him, a folded shirt and pants in his hands "Vice-Admiral, sir!" 

Smoker looked at him. It was not one of his men. He stood, though, and accepted the clothes through the bars. 

"Your crew has restocked and is ready to depart when you emerge with the pirate, sir! Our men are waiting at the entrance to escort you to your ship and prevent complications."

Smoker nodded, eyes narrow and gaze almost a glare. "Then go join them. You are dismissed."

The marine nodded and quickly exited, leaving Smoker and the sniper alone again. 

Smoker set the clothes down next to Usopp and took the keys he'd been given before. One opened all the cells and one worked on all the cuffs. A stupid fucking system, but that made it easy to uncuff the sniper. He did his best not to touch him as he did so. Underneath the cuffs, his wrists were raw and red and possibly infected. His ankles were the same. Usopp hurriedly threw on the shirt and pants and stood. He held his wrists out and looked Smoker in the eye. He winced a little when the metal once again clasped over his raw skin but that was all. 

Smoker led Usopp out of the cell. The sniper limped behind him but Smoker felt in no place to offer assistance, not that it would even be accepted. 

Usopp hesitated when they exited the front gate of the base and a line of marines stood on either side, guarding the way to Smoker's ship, but he only halted for a moment before he continued to follow the Vice Admiral.

Once on the ship they departed immediately and Smoker was grateful. Tashigi had been on board waiting and he saw her face change into one of confusion and then worry and horror at Usopp's current state. Several of the crew members reacted the same way. 

Usopp's wounds were treated as well as they could be for the moment and then they sent him to the brig (which was much better than where he'd just been. 

"Set a course for the Straw Hat's most recent known location." Smoker ordered after they were a ways away from the island and everything was in order. 

None of his crew were surprised. 

Finding the Straw Hats took a long time. Smoker didn't know where Usopp had been captured and separated from them, but it must not have been close to that base - the crew hadn't attacked it. Usopp was still in the brig and he was healing. He didn't say much and he slept a lot - they'd put a proper mattress down there. Smoker did not allow his crew to talk to him - as far as they knew he still thought they were headed for Impel Down. It was best that way - if they got into any trouble along the way, though they knew he was a good liar, it would be best if he didn't know. 

Ten days it took to finally spot the Thousand Sunny on the horizon. They sailed towards it, running up a flag to say they came in peace. 

Smoker made his way down to the brig when the ships drew closer together. He stopped outside Usopp's cell and opened the door. "It's time, Usopp."

Usopp looked up at him. Even after this long he still looked so tired. He simply nodded and stood, silent and calm. He offered his hands to be cuffed but Smoker just took his wrist, the rawness of which had healed well, and led him onto the deck. 

Usopp limped in front of him without complaint or resistance and Smoker held the wrist behind his back. They neared the open door to the deck. 

Usopp halted. "Smoker. I know you'll see Luffy again… will you tell him I was brave?"

Smoker shoved him out onto the deck and the sniper stumbled a moment and blinked, eyes adjusting and widening when they landed on the colorful ship straight to the right. 

"Tell him yourself." He said gruffly. Usopp stood stock still. 

The two ships took a few more minutes to line up with each other but when they did, Smoker went to the side closest to them and watched the crew assemble on the grassy deck. He let go of Usopp's wrist. As he'd thought, Usopp took a few staggering steps and then sprinted, stumbling on his bad leg but not stopping for a moment until he was at the edge of the ship, only a few meters from the Thousand Sunny. 

"Luffy!" He yelled, voice choked but forced back in a weak attempt at bravery. 

There were gasps and cries of surprise and many yells of Usopp's name from the other deck. Usopp himself climbed up onto the railing and leapt, a surprisingly strong feat for a still healing man. He cleared the gap between the two ships and landed on his captain, whose arms went around him tightly. 

Usopp was fully sobbing now, making little attempt to conceal it. His arms scrabbled at Straw Hat's back and the rubber man dropped down on the deck to hold Usopp and let him go limp into his shoulder. The not-pet leapt and landed on the both of them, wrapping his tiny, stubby arms around Usopp. Many of them looked emotional. 

The women, however, were looking at Smoker. The Knight of the Sea joined them in their staring, and though Pirate Hunter and Black Leg were among those who flocked to the sniper, distrustful glances were shot out towards the marine vessel. 

Devil's Child and Cat Burglar watched Smoker's men set up ramps between the two ships. 

Smoker stepped onto the ramp and crossed, stopping before boarding the pirate ship. "Permission to board?"

They'd allowed them this close, but it was safest to be polite. And the polite thing was to ask. 

The three glanced at their occupied captain, then at their swordsman, who nodded just a little and returned his attention to Usopp. They then looked at each other. Cat Burglar nodded her approval and Smoker made the small jump down onto the grass deck. 

"Why did you have him?" the navigator asked, immediately and sounding quite threatening. Smoker wasn't sure he'd ever actually seen her angry. The helmsman and archaeologist seemed interested to hear the answer too, and Smoker could feel that they were tense and on guard and that so were the others even as they held their returned crewmate. 

"I was tasked with his shipment to Impel Down." The eyes of the three in front of him widened and before Cat Burglar could ask another question he continued. "I stand for justice. But what was done to him was not just."

The former shichibukai's eyes narrowed. "And what was done to him?"

"That is not my place to say. His medical report is here and I trust you'll give it straight to your doctor. It is their business until your sniper decides otherwise." He held out the file he'd brought - Usopp wasn't fully healed yet.

The archaeologist took it. "He will get it." Her tone was grave. She, at least, likely would not need much of an explanation. He hated that that was the truth, that she too had been hurt by the injustice that called itself the opposite of what it was. 

Smoker nodded. "One more thing," he said. He reached into his pocket and withdrew the eternal pose that had led him to the base in the first place. Its needle pointed back the way his ship had come. 

He handed it to the Cat Burglar. "You're the navigator, yes? I don't know that your crew is one for revenge. But if you are, the world is better off without such a blemish on humanity as this base."

Then he turned and stepped back up onto the ramp. "Goodbye. Do me the favor of keeping it between us that we came to you."

He went back to his ship and they retracted the ramps. 

Smoker looked at the Straw Hat's ship as they began to pull away. The Sniper was tangled up in his crewmates' limbs and the three he'd talked to had joined him.

Usopp lifted his head and looked at him. His arms were still around Straw Hat, and the rest of the crew, even the ones he'd call monsters, were pressed close. 

_Thank you,_ he mouthed. 

A marine had done a favor for a pirate. Normally the thought made him sick, but perhaps this was an exception. He inclined his head.

**Author's Note:**

> Yeah, so there's that! Idk if anyone will actually read this, it's kind of odd. But I wanted to post it, so, here! I hope that it was enjoyable!


End file.
